As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new
conflict-a war for the greater Middle East. From the Balkans and
East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, U.S. forces
embarked upon a series of campaigns across the Islamic world with
no end in sight. In his aptly titled new book, America’s War
for the Greater Middle East, Andrew Bacevich connects the dots
of a sweeping narrative from episodes as varied as the Beirut
bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of
Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Indeed,
Bacevich claims that America’s costly military interventions can
only be understood when seeing the seemingly discrete events as
part of a single war. Is he right? Or are America’s military
adventures in the Middle East discrete occurrences driven by the
unique circumstances of the moment? Is it really one big, long war,
or many? Join us to find out.